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Earlier this year, a video by a popular travel content creator expressing frustration over India's weak passport gained massive traction across digital platforms.

He mentioned that while nearby nations like Sri Lanka and Bhutan were more welcoming of Indian tourists, securing travel permits to travel to most Western and European countries remained a challenge.

This dissatisfaction regarding India's poor passport strength was reflected in recent global passport ranking, which placed the country in the 85th spot out of 199 countries, five spots lower than last year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings yet.

Nations like Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size than India – which is the fifth-largest economy globally – hold better positions on the index in the seventies range, in that order.

In fact, the country's position over the last ten years has hovered in the 80s, falling to ninetieth place two years ago. These rankings appear poor compared to other Asian countries like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, which have consistently held top positions.

What Passport Strength Indicates

The power of a passport reflects a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to enhanced travel freedom for its citizens, boosting business and learning opportunities. Limited passport power means more paperwork, higher visa costs, reduced travel benefits and longer waiting times for travel.

However, even with the decline in the rank, the count of nations offering visa-free access for Indian citizens has grown in the past decade or so.

For example, in 2014 – the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party assumed office – fifty-two nations provided visa-free travel for Indian passport holders and its passport at seventy-sixth position on the index.

The following year, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then rose to 80th in 2023 and 2024, dropping again to the eighty-fifth spot this year. At the same time, visa-free destinations for Indians increased from 52 in 2015 to sixty last year and sixty-two this year.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The number of nations allowing visa-free entry this year (fifty-seven) exceeds the number eight years ago (52), but the country's position during both periods is 85. What explains this situation?

Analysts note that a major reason is the increasingly competitive landscape in international travel – indicating that countries are forming additional travel agreements for their populations' advantage and their economies. According to a 2025 report, the worldwide mean number of destinations people can visit without visas has nearly doubled from fifty-eight nineteen years ago to 109 in 2025.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has increased the number of visa-free destinations its citizens can travel to from fifty to eighty-two in the past decade. As a result, its rank in the ranking has improved from 94th to 60th during the same time period.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to eighty-fifth place this autumn after losing access to two countries.

Additional Factors Impacting Passport Power

An ex-diplomat from India says there are other factors influencing the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability plus its openness to welcoming citizens from abroad.

For example, the American passport has fallen from the top ten currently holding the 12th position – a historic low – because of its more inward-looking approach in world politics.

The diplomat mentioned how in the 1970s, Indians enjoyed visa-free access to many Western and European countries, though this shifted following Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Later political disturbances have continued to damage at India's image as a stable democracy.

"Numerous nations are also becoming more cautious regarding migrants," he stated. "The country possesses a high number of people migrating overseas or overstaying their visas and that interferes with the national image."

Elements like the security level of a national passport and its immigration procedures also play a role in gaining visa-free access to foreign nations.

Enhanced Security Measures

India's passport remains vulnerable to security threats. In 2024, law enforcement arrested 203 people for alleged passport and visa irregularities. India is also known for cumbersome immigration procedures with lengthy timelines for visa approvals.

The diplomat says that technological advances, such as the newly introduced electronic passport or e-passport, can improve security and streamline immigration. The e-passport contains a microchip holding biometric data, making it harder to counterfeit or alter the passport.

However, more diplomatic outreach and travel agreements continue essential to boosting international travel freedom for Indian citizens and consequently, India's passport ranking.